They do
Many professional video game players were once involved in sports, including myself. The story for several gamers is that they played some sport for a few years, got hurt, had to find something to do that didn't involve a lot of physical activity, so they turned to video games. I just read an interview for a player that has recently found success in Counter-Strike, and his story is exactly that. "After I had a bone contusion in my ankle from playing basketball, I was pretty much disabled for a good 8 months after a week of just sitting around reading and watching TV. I wanted to find something that would entertain me. I called my good friend and neighbor shoutz because I knew he played Counter-Strike."
I gained interest in football when I was very young probably because of the success of the Dallas Cowboys in the early nineties. I told my dad I wanted to play football, and my love for competition began with the next season in the SVAA league playing flag football when I was in second grade. I loved flag football, I was good and it was fun. After three years of flag I decided I was ready for tackle football. After adjusting to the increase in violence and pain, I thought I could handle it. Although those things didn't bother me, the coaches did. The coaches decided I was not good enough for offense, so they put me at safety. I never played defense, and the coaches did not teach me how to play at all. On top of that, they felt yelling fixed everything, and that me calling them "sir" would make me a better football player. I didn't call them sir, I didn't like any of my coaches, and I hated football; something I never thought would happen. A year later my dad pointed my competitiveness to video games, and here I am today.
Why Counter-Strike?
Competition, winning, and showcasing your skills are some of the reasons you might want to play Counter-Strike. People start out playing it because it is a video game, and it's fun. Once they realize they are actually pretty good, they continue to play it. After a while they might look around to join the community the game has. Then they discover the whole world of e-Sports. People have leagues for this game? I can join a team and play a five versus five? The desire to compete and win drive people to play Counter-Strike as competitively as they do. After all, the people that play it are just boys, they like to talk trash to their buddies telling them how much better they are than each other.
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| The rush begins... |
Besides that though, Counter-Strike is the purest first person shooter out in the game world. It came out before all the fancy Modern Warfare games did where realism is important. Many things you see in Counter-Strike can never happen in real life, but that's what people love about it: it's a game. If you aim at a head and shoot it, it explodes. If you shoot faster than your opponent, you win. If you aim better than your opponent, you win. If you throw a flash bang that blinds your opponent and you correctly take advantage of that, you win. The guns all shoot straight unless you are waiting for the recoil from shooting to simmer down. Counter-Strike is one of the best indicators of how close one is to being the ultimate gamer.
Imagine what it feels like to win some sort of competition against people; it can be in tennis, cards, video games, running, whatever. Hey, you like winning, why not try to win as much as possible? Now imagine the feeling of winning when you practiced hard in order to keep that winning feeling going. Imagine the feeling of winning a scrimmage as a team against another team. Imagine the feeling of winning a match you had to pay an entry fee for. All of these feelings combined come close to the feeling of winning a match at an event where there are potentially thousands of people watching you. Thousands of people just watched you win a one versus four. It might be mentally and emotionally draining after the fact, but all of this winning provides an adrenaline rush, and that's what we live for, right? We live for excitement, fun, trash talk, and the celebration afterwards.
If you like video games, and you haven't tried Counter-Strike, I strongly recommend it to you. If you have never wanted to play a first person shooter game before, neither did I before I tried it. It is a video game that goes beyond the guy in the basement playing by himself; it has a massive community where people have made lasting friendships. Beware though: it is a drug. If you are a competitive person, you will not be able to stop. I haven't been able to.
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